Report 1076
Report #1076 Skillset: Tracking Skill: Snakepit Org: Ur'Guard Status: Completed Mar 2013 Furies' Decision: We do not like the idea of riftable snakes. Solution 1. Problem: The transcendent skill in tracking, snake pit, is simply not effective and as a result is rarely used. Changes are needed to make it more useful and more representative of a transcendent skill. The two biggest issues are the limited impact from the actual pit and the fact that the trap is difficult to use in a combat situation other than a pre-setup pit. With regards to damage, from testing with a range of snakes, the impact of 5 snakes is often less than an envenomed spikepit. With regards to use, there is an issue with the snakes coming into the main room when the person who triggered it climbs out, meaning if they are aggressive they attack allies. You must also have 5 snakes to lay and conceal the pit. 0 R: 0 Solution #1: Change mechanism to keep snakes in pit even after the trap has been triggered and make snakepit an extension to normal pits (ie you add the snakes to an existing active pit), where you can add a variable number of snakes up to the current limit of 5. 0 R: 0 Solution #2: Solution 1 plus increase the number of snakes allowed in the pits to 10 in order to increase the effectiveness of this skill. 0 R: 0 Solution #3: Refer to solution Ushaara's complimentary report 1098 and http://pastebin.com/4WkJEH8j Player Comments: ---on 2/26 @ 01:12 writes: Supported. Poor trackers. I always feel bad for them. ---on 2/26 @ 07:43 writes: Riftable snakes. Do it. ---on 2/27 @ 20:16 writes: Solutions 1 and 2 supported. Solution 3 not supported in current form. I am not sure how I feel about pit+concussion unless there is a heavy power cost associated. ---on 2/27 @ 20:17 writes: Oh, I forgot to mention that I like Shuyin's idea. ---on 3/8 @ 16:03 writes: I would suggest a different solution. Make people in snake pits not targetable by those above the pit, snakes in the pit are made to be level 80 mobs that you must kill before you can climb out of the pit. Change snakepit to require a riftable item instead of snakes, an item to summon powerful snakes to the pit ---on 3/10 @ 14:01 writes: My own thinking is that three choices of 'pits' in the Tracking skill is a bit redundant, when as you say spikepits can have near the same effectiveness, making Tracking's transcendent skill go largely unused. But of these solutions I support #1. ---on 3/11 @ 16:43 writes: I definitely do agree that tracking has legitimate problems in its overall design, namely that there are many traps that are vitually useless in any situation and that the reliance on traps alone leads to a very inflexible and frustrating style of combat. Let's be realistic here, however. Pits (in hand with spring traps) represent the most powerful tool in the tracker's arsenal. They become costly to escape, are incredibly powerful hindering and give a tracker so much area control that they can be nearly untouchable if they wanted to be. A pre-pitted area can lock down an area completely. Spike pits and vanilla pits alone are already incredibly strong and actually problematic in some ways. So while I do believe that snakepit is a poor transcendant skill (for its redundancy and awkwardness), I have to ask if we really need another more powerful pit at all! I'd really rather just toss out the skill entirely and replace it with a new mechanic that isn't even necessarily another trap. I do not like Morbo's idea at all. Tracking is not hurting for player isolation in the least. Solution 2 as you suggested is a huge no from me as well since it's just another buff to something that doesn't need it. Of the solutions offered here, solution 1 ONLY I'd support. To clarify, I believe snake pit is not a good transcendant skill not because it isn't strong, but rather because given the extra requirements, people will almost always (and do, infact) just elect to use vanilla pits or spike pits . ---on 3/12 @ 06:41 writes: Tbh I do kind of share Rivius' opinions. I can agree with a change to snakepits insofar as to make it more useable (like that sweet riftable snake idea), but an overall buff to tracking (pits especially) probably isn't warranted. I do kind of enjoy the idea of traps that a tracker can fire whenever though. ---on 3/12 @ 14:24 writes: Not to hijack this report further, but since Shuyin mentioned similar idea to mine, I have been playing with a very early draft of new transcendent ability, Report #1098. Solution #1 still a nice improvement for Snakepit here though! ---on 3/24 @ 18:55 writes: Making snakes level 80 makes zero sense, heh. ---on 3/24 @ 19:03 writes: Riftable snakes isn't really possible, not like you want anyways.